That's Serious

My DH recently hit a deer with his car. This incident has tainted many of his daily interactions since it was mildly traumatizing and extremely annoying. Now that you know the history, let me tell you a story! My boys love jokes. They like hearing them and even more, they like telling them. Now, their jokes are not funny. They are actually so not funny, that they often cause you to laugh hysterically. And, the more you laugh the more they tell, and the more they tell, the worse they get. It's a vicious cycle. One thing that we like to do in the car is to tell these not funny, but funny jokes. Currently they are obsessed with the "why did the _____ cross the road" type joke. The blank is normally filled by some random object in the vicinity that catches their eye. For example, I just asked my three year old to tell me a joke. As if on cue he said "why did the rice crispy treat cross the road?" (guess what he's having for snack) "Why," I asked? "To get to the other side!" (ah, but of course) Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle. Like I could make this stuff up! Anyway. Our last out of town car trip was a nightmare (horrible car accident, tons of traffic), but we did have plenty of quality time to watch two family films and tell countless jokes. As we were nearing home my husband decided to take a turn in the joke pool. Knowing exactly how to tickle their collective funny bones he asks, "Why did the deer cross the road?". "Why?" they literally screamed with joyful anticipation. Okay, wait for it, wait for it..."Because he wanted to get hit by a car!". Crickets. Yep, his response was met by crickets. No laughing, no giggling, no nothing. Finally, my seven year old breaks the silence by saying, "Daddy, that's not funny, that's serious." Way to tell the politically incorrect joke, Dad! Animal's have rights too, that's no laughing matter. Needless to say, that was the last joke of the night as we spent the last 15 minutes in the car in silence. Even the one year old sensed the change in the car and appropriately spared us his delightful (or excruciating as the case may be) ramblings for the remainder of the trip.